When a vehicle collides, such as an automobile colliding with another automobile, the imparted force on the passengers can have consequences in the form of injuries on the passengers. A common scenario is when a back passenger sitting in a rear seat of the vehicle, is thrown into a front seat of the vehicle, due to the rapid deceleration of the vehicle during a collision, for example. As the passengers have an amount of inertia, travelling with the same speed as the vehicle before the rapid deceleration, an unbuckled passenger can literally fly into the back side of a front seat in a vehicle. Other common injuries during a collision are neck injuries, sometimes referred to as whiplash injuries. When designing and developing head rests for vehicle seats these potentially lethal traffic injuries need to be addressed. One step towards reducing the effects of such accidents during collisions was taken by Volvo when Volvo introduced the head rest on their vehicle seats as early as 1968.
Adjustable head rests of vehicle seats tend to be thick, due to the components required for the adjustment mechanism, and can potentially obstruct a driver when driving the vehicle. One traffic situation when this problem may be realized is when a driver of a vehicle, such as an automobile, will overtake another automobile. Before switching lane, a driver needs to look through the rear view mirror, side view mirror and subsequently turn his or her head and check the blind spot of the side view mirror before safely switching lane. However, adjustable head rests can obstruct the driver's view of the blind spot. There is thus also a need for vehicle seats with thin, or slim, adjustable head rests arrangements.
In the patent publication US patent No. 2006/0226689 A1, an adjustable head rests is disclosed. The angular position of the head rest can be adjusted using a mechanism comprising of two holding brackets plugged into holding receptacles. The holding receptacles are formed in rotatable bodies, thus enabling the angular positioning. The head rest has an adjustable cushion body, which position along a Z-axis, e.g. in the vertical direction with respect to the vehicle, can be adjusted by sliding the cushion body along the two holding brackets by means of a motor. The motor is arranged inside the sliding cushion.